New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1887-05-11
TIE GOTERYORS LATEST VETO.

Last fall the people by good majority de-
cided that tho Constitution Of the State should
be amended. In obedience to this mandate
the Legislature passed bill providing for the
necessary convention. Under this BILL in ac-
coIdanco with precedonts, one delegate would
have been elected from each Assembly dis
t,ict The Constitutional Conventions of 1921
and Of 1916 were composed in that manner.
The bill also provided for delegates -at-largc
and for all the machinery necessary for carrying
into effect the popular will.
Governor Hill now steps forward and over
rides the decision of the voters as given effect
by the Legislature. He vetocs the Constltu-
tional Convention BILL Why has he done so
He has done so, not on public, but on purely
partisan grounds. He kills the bill-iust as
a few years ago he wantonly killed the Census
bll-because he believes it is not calculated
to bring grist to the Democratic mill. No
candid man in the State who is familiar with
his career will say otherwise. His course as
Governor has been that Of selfish, schcmlng
politician who is for Hill and the Democracy
first last and all the time. Out of his own
mouth as it happens this last veto is con-
demncd In his message TO the Legislature
of last January the Governor employed the
following language;
Tho number Of delegates Of which such lConstitu'
tionaD convention shall be composed their qualihca-
lions and compensation, the manner Of their election
and tho territory or districts which they shall repre-
sent tho time OF their assembling and other important
matters OF detail not laid dozen or prescribed
ia he Constitution ITSELF but Ten 10 the discretion
Of he iaw-makin2 po'cer. TO be manifested ana de-
clared in a statute now to be enacted.
That is the way Mr.. Hill wrote in January.
Then he recognized that the Constitution did
not prescribe any particular sort Of Conven-
ton bill, but that its form and substance were
left "to the discretion of the law-maklng
power Now, however he has the ass urance
TO veto a Convention bill which is the outcome
of the discretion of the law making power not
on the assumption that it is unconstitutional
or illegal, but simply because it does not fit
into the plans of the man who is fond OF
procamng - am Democrat In his stump
speech at that unfortunate Brooklyn dinner he
virtually declared that he would veto the Con-
stitutional Convention bill which was then
pending. The stump speech threat has been
carried out 1t is idle to discuss the ostensi-
bic reasons which the Governor puts forward
for his Veto He lays greatest stress on his
charge that the bill provides for a partisan
convention. The humbug nature Of this sort
of talk when INDUCED in by Mr.. Hill is readily
exposed. In the message from which we have
quoted the Governor suggested n scheme for
convention which be expected would give the
control of the body 10 the Democratic party.
But the Governors course in depnving the
people of the right to have the Constitution
amended will serve one excellent purpose. The
next Constitutional Convention that assemblies
NAV well take into consideration the propricty
of placing some additional restriction upon the
veto power 1t certainly was not within the
purvew Of the trainers Of our government that
veto should be employed to prevent census
from being taken or the organic instrument
from being revised when the bills providing
for the census and the revision were in viola
ton neither Of the Constitution nor Of any
staiutp.